This comprehensive tire test evaluates 12 different tire models across various performance metrics (dry/wet handling, braking, noise, comfort, rolling resistance) to determine the best options for consumers, particularly investigating if budget tires can now match premium performance.
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In this test, I will be testing all 12
of these tires in the dry, wet, braking,
noise, comfort, and rolling resistance
to find out exactly which tire is best
for your own driving needs. As usual,
not only do I have tires from brands
like Michelin, Prely, Continental, and
Bridgestone, I have a good spread of
mid-range and budget tires to find out
whether in 2026, can we now fit a
cheaper tire and still get all the
performance of a premium tire, or do we
still really need to pay that money to
get the best quality possible? It should
be a really exciting test. So, let's get
on with the testing. Okay, how are these
tires in the wet? Now, as there are 12
sets, I'm going to go through these kind
of in groups and fairly quickly. I will
put more information as always on the
tire reviews website if you really want
to dig into how these are subjectively.
Now, the slowest tire on test award goes
to Dante. And this was in a group of its
own. It was its own little bubble,
significantly behind every other tire,
including the other cheap ones. It was
just difficult to drive. It slid around.
It had no bite and you really couldn't
get it into the corners or out of the
corners. So, uh, that's the definite one
to avoid of this group. Next up was
Bridgestone and Good Ride. Now, this
surprised me. Uh, the Good Ride
subjectively was not as nice as the
Bridgestone. the Bridgestone. So, when
we're talking about subjective handling
in the wet, it's mostly about it's less
about steering response and more about
how the vehicle feels in around the
limit. So, if you're in an emergency
situation like a lane change, is the
vehicle going to be predictable? And
with the Bridgestone, it was lovely and
predictable. The front axle was stable.
You kind of understood where it was
going. Whereas the good ride, although
it had a similar lap time, it just
wasn't quite as understandable and I did
almost fall off the track on the good
ride. It's the only tire I did. So, uh,
good ride is not yet a good ride, but
last time I tested it, it was a terrible
ride. And this time it's a below average
ride, so they're improving. So, that's
progress. Then we had the Clever and the
Redstein. Now, both these tires were
step up in grip. And on the good ride,
definitely a step up subjectively,
although the Bridgestone, like I said,
the Bridgestone was quite nice
subjectively. It just didn't have the
bite. Uh, the Clever and the Redstein,
they were both actually quite nice to
drive. These were like average/above
average subjectively. The Clever almost
felt sporty. I've never really enjoyed
driving Clever. They're a Michelin
subbrand and they've always kind of
taken on the Michelin ethos and that is
safe, boring, understos,
while it still felt safe. Obviously, it
wasn't a twitchy tire or anything like
that, it actually turned really nicely
on this GTI. I enjoyed it. Then we had
the Deba, which is a Goodyear subbrand.
Now, this was an odd tire on its first
lap. So, I do an outlap and then two
fast laps and then I come in and the
outlap's fairly long. And on the outlap
and for half of the first lap, it felt
like a really cheap tire. It was sliding
at the back. It was difficult to get
into the corners. But once it had some
heat into it, it second lap was
significantly better and it was the only
tire like most of the time my delta
between laps is about a tenth of a
second. The Debaca was nearly a entire
second and it wasn't my driving. I
didn't make any mistakes. So on the
second lap it felt like a really good
tire. On the first lap, it felt like a
pretty below average tire and it
averaged out to be an okay tire, but I
think on the road, especially in cooler
conditions, it was about 15° when I
tested the Deba. Um, I think it's going
to struggle a little bit more. So, keep
that in mind if you're thinking about
that tire. It's lap time is probably
overpromising what you'll get from it on
the street. Then you had the Michelin
Primacy 5. And this tire was absolutely
classic Michelin. What does classic
Michelin mean? I just touched on that
with clever under steer and under steer
is very safe and easy to control and the
Michelin wasn't trying to fight you. It
wasn't trying to be sporty. It just does
the Michelin thing very well. As always
with the Primacy range, Michelin go for
total life performance and they go for
excellent tread life. And I do think
that often hurts them in the wet because
it's never the best tire in the wet. And
we've once again proven in this group it
was just average like the other tires
around it. but average and safe and very
Michelin. Next up was the Maxis
Perimeter HP6. And like other Maxis
products I've tested recently, it's done
well in the wet. My one quibble with the
HP6 was the fact it was just a little
bit peaky around the limit of grip. So
you'd be turning and suddenly you
wouldn't get a lot of notice about the
transition or the breakaway of the grip.
Um but it would just start sliding and
then took a little bit longer than the
average of the tires to recover. But its
actual grip was excellent. No complaints
about the grip. Then we had the Kumo
Extra Sport, the new one that everyone's
been asking me to test. Um, it was
it was a tire like it's obviously it's
fourth overall in lap time, so it did a
very good job. But subjectively, and
this is a good thing. I'm not being
negative about the Kumo. Subjectively,
it didn't give me anything to worry
about. I just got round the lap. I got
to the end of the lap. I was like,
"That's a good lap. Good job, Kumo. I'm
impressed with what you've done here.
Um, and yeah, good all round tire. No
real surprises, which is one of the
higher compliments I can pay for a tire.
However, the final three tires, the
Hanok, the Pirelli, and the Continental,
these three tires are in a bubble of
their own. Like, it's showing the Hanok
can definitely mix with the big boys.
And it's showing how much better the
very top premium tires are. Let's ignore
Bridgestone for a second. Next up, the
Hanook. Like, so I did it. I've
basically done it in the order I'm
telling you. I went from the Kumo to the
Hand Cook and I was like, "That was a
good lap on the Kumo." And then I got on
the Hand Cook and I was My voice note at
the end. I do voice notes to record my
subjective impressions as I get off the
track. My voice note was, "Oh my gosh,
that thing was incredible." Like, you
just got round the track. It's the Golf
GTI. And finally, I feel like I'm
actually driving and attacking the
surface and the car's going where I want
it to go. And yeah, I really enjoyed the
lap on the Hancock. It was fabulous.
Then I went to the Prely and I was like,
"Oh my god, this is even better
slightly." It was about half a second on
in time, but like the steering reaction
was just a little bit sharper and a
little bit better. But where the Hanok
had quite a wide window between grip and
no grip, the Prelies was quite narrow.
So, uh, that's where the PL slightly
falls back subjectively. It just wasn't
quite the window between uh grip and no
grip and sliding and not sliding was a
little bit smaller than the Hancock. And
then I went to the Continental, the
Premium Contact 7. Well, I've tested
this a number of times. It's great.
Again, the tire performs admirably. It
was a blend of the PL and the Hanok in
that maybe it wasn't quite as direct and
as sporty feeling as the PL, but it was
slightly more than the Hank. Again, I'm
talking tiny margins. Uh, but then it
had quite a wide window of sliding. So,
it was the best all round in terms of
lap time. It was one of the best
subjectively and Continental back at the
front in a wet test. Shock horror. But
honestly, the Continental Prey and the
Hanook, these three tires are
incredible. We kind of expect it from
Continental. The new Prey stuff is
always at the front in the wet and Hank
Cooker once again proving they are a
legit premium tire manufacturer. Uh and
the Kuma did pretty well as well.
Anything below that was fineish. Um but
I would like to see more grip to really
be a excellent tire in the way. But
interesting test. Sorry I've taught for
so long. Let's get on with something
else. The top four and wet braking were
the same as the top four and wet
handling just in a slightly different
order which happens when everything is
this close to the top. I also ran a wet
circle test which further confirmed the
top four. You can see the data on the
Tarafuse website. In the deeper water of
the aquiplaning test, the Hanukkin and
Continental all performed excellently
with a shout out to the Deba winning the
curved aquiplaning test. Okay, dry
handling. Now, I'm going to try and talk
about this very, very quickly as I talk
so much on wet handling. I'm very sorry
about that. The short version is the
good ride and the Devante were bad. Now,
the good ride should in time I averaged
two laps. It should have been a little
bit quicker than the Devante, but I made
a big mistake on my first lap because
the tire just heated out so quickly and
gave you no information about what it
was doing. It was unpredictable.
Usually, I would have done a third lap,
but the tire was already too hot. And
honestly, subjectively, it was that
difficult to drive. It kind of deserves
that negativity.
The rest of the tires, well, they were
fine. There was basically a big group
from Bridgestone to Debaca. Now, this is
a 17in touring summer tire segment, so
none of them are particularly designed
to be on track, so I'm not degrading any
of them hugely based on their track
performance. Uh, but these this group of
tires was they were all pretty much as
you would expect from a touring tire
that's designed more for comfort and low
rolling resistance. They all just felt a
little bit soft on the steering. Now,
the standout of that group was the Deba.
Actually, I really enjoyed the DebA. And
maybe I'm imagining it, but Debba, if
you don't know, is a subbrand of
Goodyear. And Goodyear make very good
tires, especially the asymmetric. I'm
very sad it's not in this test. Couldn't
get it in time, but maybe Debra using
some previous generation Goodyear
technology. So maybe I'm imagining it,
but yeah, enjoyable tire on track. And
then from fifth to first was separated
by less than a percent, which is
incredibly close. Now, speaking of
punching above the weight, you had the
Maxis as the fastest tire around the
track, but it didn't have the most grip.
So, what am I what's going on? Well, the
Maxis was just lovely to drive. It was
responsive on the steering. Once you
were in the corner, you still had the
ability to adjust it. It gave good
feedback. And I know a lot of people
watch the tire reviews channel really
longing for a good value street tire in
below 18 in that you can actually use on
track and have fun with. And honestly, I
think this Maxis might be the new tire.
So, if you go out and try it, um, please
let me know by reviewing it on the
website or leaving a YouTube comment or
messaging me on Instagram. Um, I think
this Maxis might be the new fun 16, 17in
tire that you can use on track. As for
the rest of them, well, I do want to
give a specific nod to the Kumo as well,
the Esta Sport. I've seen this tested a
couple of times and it's had good
results. I've seen some reviews saying
it's very good subjectively, and yes, it
wasn't the fastest, but it might as well
have been. It was so close. Uh, but the
subjective nature of this tire, even
sublim, which I'll talk about later, um,
it was excellent. It was a very well
balanced tire, good reactions, good
steering. Uh, good job by Kumo. Uh,
Prely and Continental were obviously
very high grip and very fast. Uh, but
they did in this little bubble at the
top, they did feel a little bit more
touring optimized in that the steering
reaction wasn't the very quickest of the
group, especially the Continental. There
is a slight elasticity to the steering
that I'm not a huge fan of on track and
it's not designed to be a track tire.
And also, the Handcook was a very nice
tire. So, Kumo, Handook, and Maxis, um,
incredible job. Obviously, Prey and
Continental, their latest and greatest
stuff is always going to have remarkable
grip. But if you're looking for this
sort of 16 17inch fun track, um I would
steer more towards the Maxis and the
Hanker and Kumo are also excellent. So,
good job by all of them. This has been
less than 4 minutes. So, good job by me
this time. And let's move on with dry
braking. Pretty led dry braking.
Continental was a close second with Kumo
third. Interestingly, the Maxis, which
did so well in the dry handling test,
only placed ninth in dry braking, 7%
behind the best. Sadly, I didn't have
the time to really dig into the
subjective comfort levels of the tires
too much. I did do noise. I did one
quick lap of the comfort lanes before
going off to dry handling. However, a
colleague did run the test a few days
earlier to my visit, so I'm using his
scoring, which I do trust very much.
Overall, if comfort is your focus, the
Michelin Premacy 5 is the best choice,
which we've seen before, and the Deba is
also a solid allrounder. Though the
Continental does have strong comfort, if
not a little bit noisier in the EU label
external noise test. Basically, as
always, they are all incredibly close.
On my brief run around the comfort
course, I did find it quite difficult to
notice any major differences, even with
the firm GTI suspension. The only two
tires that really did stand out in
comfort, and not in a good way, was the
Good Ride, ironically, and the Devante.
But both of these did have the lowest
external noise level. So, if noise is
your thing, they are the tires to buy.
But hopefully by now you've seen enough
data not to buy them. The rolling
resistance levels of the tires or the
energy use of the tires was another
interesting test. For some reason, the
Bridgestone had a 10% lead over the next
best tire, which was the Michelin
Premacy 5. And that in itself was nearly
10% better than the average of the rest
of the tires. There are clearly some
different opinions on what kind of
levels of rolling resistance this
category of tire should have. And that
does also explain Bridgestone's
relatively weak wet grip as low rolling
resistance and good wet grip are
opposing performance qualities. You can
see the rolling resistance differences
calculated on the tire reviews website
linked in the description. There's also
a fuel use calculator there now to show
you exactly what these numbers mean. The
reality of rolling resistance data and
the real world fuel usage is actually
closer than you would imagine. As for
the overall results, I've used the
standard score waiting I've always used
for this category of tires to keep it
fair and consistent. But as always, you
can go back to the tire reviews website
and adjust the score waiting for your
own driving needs. Eg, if you would
prefer more comfort bias tires or lower
rolling resistance or better wet grip,
you can go and do that. I've actually
improved this functionality a lot in the
past few months, so it's well worth
checking out and leave a review while
you're there. I did start this video
asking whether cheap tires are now good
enough to replace premium options and at
least in the case of the Dante Pura
Sport, the answer is a resounding no. It
was impressive in one regard and that
was consistency. Sadly for the tire, it
was consistently last in six of the
tested metrics, one place from last in
four of the tested metrics, but it did
have an okay rolling resistance and
excellent external noise levels. So,
it's got that going for it. The big
issue was getting the car stopped where
in both the dry and the wet, it was
significantly behind even the next worst
tire. want to avoid based on this data
alone. The next worst tire was the Good
Ride Soulmax one which did finish
significantly ahead in this score
waiting. However, like the Devante, it
finished near the back of the pack in
almost every test apart from noise and
it was difficult subjectively too.
Another tire to avoid. The next three
tires were separated by just 0.6%
overall. The Reddit Ultra Plus finished
in 10th place. The tire struggled more
than usual in the braking test where it
was around 9% off the best in both the
dry and the wet and it wasn't as
balanced as I've previously experienced
either. It was good in the deeper water
of aquaplaning and it had a
comparatively low rolling resistance but
that doesn't make up for the grip
disadvantage. The Deba Presto UHP2 was
let down by its braking performance in
the dry and wet though was very good in
the deeper water of aquiplaning having
the best curved aquiplaning resistance
and it had the best subjective comfort
score too. It was a nice steering tire
when warm and is usually priced well.
The Max's Perimeter HP6 standout result
was the dry handling test where it was a
nice steering tire and showed potential
to be a wellpriced enthusiast product at
least in this size. Its wet braking was
only okay, seventh overall, 6.3% behind
the best and it finished fifth in wet
handling. It even had above average
rolling resistance even if it wasn't the
most comfortable tire in the test. A
good showing overall from Maxis
considering the other tires in this
test. Hopefully, it's priced
competitively. The clever Dinaxa HP5
only standout result was subjective
comfort, but it didn't really have any
major weaknesses either, finishing
midpack in almost every test. I think a
solid all round performance like the
Clever had is worth celebrating. And if
you can find this tire for a good price,
it would be an interesting proposition.
Next up was the Clever's cousin, the
Michelin Primacy 5, which is clearly
focused on low energy use and good noise
and comfort levels. Sublimit. As always,
the Michelin was a lovely steering tire,
but I would like to see a little bit
more wet grip from the French
manufacturer. But it is hard not to
recommend this product for an
energyefficient focused driver. The Kumo
Esther Sport was another lovely driving
tire, but with the grip to back it up,
finishing third overall in dry braking
and handling and fourth overall in wet
braking and wet handling. It was one of
the worst tires, if not the worst, in
the deep water of the aquiplaning test,
which cost it a higher finish overall,
but otherwise it is a solid product.
recommended the Bridgestone Transer six.
Finishing in fourth place overall does
highlight the weakness of my scoring
system. Other publications that don't
have such an open transparent scoring
system can decide to penalize a tire in
the background that's dragged up by one
good overall result, which in this case
was the rolling resistance of the Trans
6. It wasn't that far off the mark in
dry and wet braking, but it really
struggled in wet handling and even dry
handling. And it wasn't great in the
deeper water of the aquiplaning test
either. The monumental rolling
resistance advantage it had over the
pack means it finishes in fourth place
overall and is definitely the tire to
buy if energy consumption is your
primary concern. But in this size,
honestly, I'm not thrilled with its wet
grip, especially wet handling. So, keep
that in mind. The Hank Ventus Evo
finishes in a very well-deserved third
place overall and is a tire I highly
recommend. Like all of the top three
tires, it was a tire without any major
weaknesses. My only grumble would be I'd
like a tiny bit more dry braking and its
rolling resistance was relatively high
in the group. But other than that, it
was just a very strong product
highlighting just how far Hanukkok have
come as a brand. I do now classify
Hanukk as a premium manufacturer and I
think you should too. As for the top two
tires, technically in the scoring
system, the PL Citrato C3 just beat the
Continental Premium Contact 7, but it
was by such a tiny fraction of a percent
that I'm calling them joint test
winners. The Continental Premium Contact
7, as always, has outstanding grip in
the dry and the wet. It's really hard to
fault the tires raw grip. It also had
excellent comfort levels, although it
was a little bit louder on the external
noise test, and its rolling resistance
was pretty average. In the real world,
the rolling resistance between the top
three tires is essentially going to be
the same. And if you want the very best
grip, the Continental is certainly up
there as one of the best. As for the PL
Citrato C3, we've now seen in many tests
it can match any tire in terms of raw
grip, having the best overall grip in
the dry and pretty much matching the
Continental in the wet. It did struggle
a little bit more in the deep water of
curved aquiplaning, although it was
great in straight aquaning. Its noise
and comfort levels were a tiny amount
down on the Continental and its rolling
resistance was a little bit up. But if
you're trying to decide between the
Preli and the Continental, I think the
PL is the one to purchase if you value
slightly more dynamic handling, and the
Continental is the one to purchase if
raw grip and comfort are your priority.
But honestly, you will be very happy
with any of the top three tires. They
are all excellent, excellent tires. As
always, please go review your tires over
at tirereviews.com. It really does help
out the channel. Let me know what summer
tires you'll be picking this year. Any
questions, please ask below. And as
always, safe motoring. Heat. Heat. N.
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